Last week, we were hoping to see a lot of progress between the Georgia Tech and Penn State games. And while the team got better, we couldn’t say that the team really progressed. At least not by our definition.
This week, we look at the progress made between the Penn State and Michigan (sucks!) games.
This must be what if feels like when you teach 6th grade math, and you’re about to grade the final exam of the kid who spent the entire semester seeing how close to the ground he could get a thread of spit to go from his mouth while still managing to suck it all back up.
Anyway, here goes: Our “Progress” Report post-Michigan (sucks!)
- In over 90% of offensive snaps, the Irish offensive line maintains their blocks until the the whistle is blown. Um, no. Fail
- The Irish offensive line allows fewer than 3 QB sacks. Uh uh. Fail
- The Irish QB connects on 60+% of his passes. Yes! But this leads to a philosophical question: If all of your passes are 1 yard quick-tosses, do they really count? Clausen is going to be really good. In fact, Clausen has the tools he needs to be the greatest ND QB ever. And Charlie Weis is just the guy to get him there. It may or may not happen. That depends on Jimmy. That depends on the team. Jimmy needs to stretch the field with deeper throws on occasion and he needs to trust some of his guys to catch the ball. He also needs to get rid of the ball on a three-step drop sooner. But in the grand scheme of things, Jimmy’s going to get really, really good. I guarantee it. Pass
- ND running backs break at least 4 runs for more than 15 yards apiece. Tough to do that when you can’t “break one” for 3 yards. I will say that James Aldridge looks like he could be very good. And he looks like he wants to play. Armando Allen still looks like he has a ton of potential. He also needs to learn not to go running right into a good linebacker. Fail
- No stupid “anger†penalties. I don’t remember any, so yay! But the team also showed a complete lack of anger at all, so booo. Pass
- ND Fullbacks find their blocking target and whiff no more than 2 times. I have to admit, I wasn’t really watching the fullbacks this weekend. The offensive line was so atrocious, the fullbacks sort of took a backseat. I do, however, recall a 3rd and 1 where I thought, “I wish this were a 3rd and 5 so Weis would be tempted to pass.” And then Schwapp blocked nobody. And then we punted. Fail
- No PSU defenders will be able to blitz the QB while a ND “blocker,†be it OL, TE, or RB is “blocking air.†Heh. We’ve seen these guys fail to block guys that were coming after their QB. We saw them fail to get into a melee with the defense after their QB was thrown to the ground in a roughing penalty. And we also saw 3 of these guys run down the field in a beautifully set up screen play that should have gone for 40 yards and block nobody. These guys are so paralyzed by a fear of failure and mistakes that they’re not doing anything at all. That, or they’re just a bunch of pansies. Fail
- The ND OLB/DEs “set the edge†against outside run bouncing by the opponent. There wasn’t a lot of outside run bouncing, but there wasn’t much need for it either. This time the edge just got totally dominated by the Michigan (sucks) offensive line. Fail
- The ND defense allows fewer than 125 yards rushing. Nope. And really, in the first 2 games, I understood the failure to achieve this goal because the defense was just getting worn out. But in the Michigan (sucks) game, the ND defense was simply getting abused by the Michigan (sucks) running game. It comes right down to not having an answer for Michigan (sucks)’s Long. Fail
- The ND kickoff return men make the correct read at the point of attack and break on the correct window each and every opportunity. This area got better, I think. I’ll pass them here. When the Irish needed a spark, the kickoff return team provided one. Of course, we immediately went backwards on offense, nullifying that spark, but hey, the kickoff return team tried to provide a spark. Look to this squad, Charlie. There must have been people among it that wanted not just to play, but to compete. Pass
- Charlie Weis identifies and exploits a weakness in the PSU defense until PSU shows they can stop it (meaning exploitations occur at least 5+ times). I have no idea. I think it was pretty clear that Charlie saw all the trouble that Michigan (sucks) has with spread offenses, and thus tried to open the game up with that sort of look. Unfortunately, ND doesn’t have anyone on the team that can run a spread look from the QB position. Also unfortunately, our center couldn’t be counted on not to snap the ball for a 30 yard loss. Incomplete
- Schwapp finally destroys someone with a block. Still waiting. I may have to drop this one next week as I have a feeling that a certain other fullback will get most of the playing time. Fail
- ND completes 5+ passes for 20+ yards. I think I counted 1. Did I miscount? I couldn’t have miscounted by 4. I just looked up Jimmy’s stats on ESPN.com, and he had a long for 14, so I did miscount. By one. Fail
- ND limits the opponent to fewer than 4.5 yards per rush. Would you believe this was pretty close? Michigan (sucks) averaged 4.7 yards per carry for the game. The problem is 4.5 yards per rush is still not very good. I was just hoping we could keep the running game from being “explosive” while Lurch Mallet looked like a true frosh starting his first game for Michigan (sucks). And the real problem is Mike Hart averaged 5.3 yards per carry. Fail
- ND averages 25+ yards on kickoff returns. Golden Tate averaged 26.6 yards per return. And my God is he close to just exploding and taking one to the house. I think he’s had “just one more guy” between him and a TD 5 times already this season. So close to such a desperately needed spark so many times…. Argh! Pass
- ND records 4+ sacks. I believe ND had 1 sack. I know ND didn’t get 4. There weren’t that many opportunities for sacks. Michigan (sucks!) didn’t need to throw it that much. Fail
So that’s a total progress score of 4 out of 12 or 25%. Reminds me of my freshman year engineering-level physics exams.
After the game, Weis held a very long (20+ minutes) Q&A session with the press. I suggest you watch it. He was peeved. I was peeved. You were peeved unless you’re a troll from Michigan (sucks). So at least we all know that we’re all peeved. Doesn’t if feel good to have something in common?
Weis has decided to, in the words of Vizzini as repeated by Inigo Montoya, “go back to the beginning.” Yesterday was the first day of the rest of this football team’s life. I hope they made the most of it. As disappointed as I am that Weis didn’t make darn sure that this offense could perform fundamental football with the proficiency of a lunatic assembling his newly-oiled M-16, I’m glad he’s identified the problem and is actually going to try something to address it. Will he do the right thing? I think so, but I don’t know so.
Weis is, ultimately, and much to the chagrin of Ara Parseghian, “learning on the job.” And he’s proved to be an excellent study, but there are going to me missteps along the way. “Trying to do too much too soon” with this offense may have been a mistake on Charlie’s part. Not making sure there’s one thing we can always do well was definitely a mistake, and Charlie’s admitted that himself. For the rest of the season, I’m going to keep doing these progress reports because I think it’ll be the only way to really see if this team is getting better. This team is young and the schedule is just brutal. Wins and losses may not tell the entire story.
Now here’s everything wrong with the offensive line (besides the total lack of leadership) that I’ve seen in total non sequitur form:
- Heads Down: The offensive linemen are playing with their heads down. That’s not an indication of poor morale. It’s just the guys are looking at the opponents’ feet when they’re trying to block someone. And this is sort of mind-boggling because I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard Latina on various practice videos across the web screaming “eyes up!” How are you going to block anyone if you can’t see them? 3 times on Saturday, I saw one of our guards go after a linebacker while impersonating a bull. Ole!
- Stationary Feet: If, and I do mean if, a Notre Dame lineman engages a defender, they usually manage to stale-mate that defender on initial contact. The problem is that the defender will always move his feet. He’s trying to get from Point A to the ball. His feet are going to move when he’s doing that. And he’s going to adjust his center of gravity while that happens and create leverage against the offensive linemen. So the offensive linemen need to adjust their own centers of gravity and create their own advantages in leverage. That’s not physically possible if your feet just stick to the ground!
- Stationary Heads: Job 1 for any offensive lineman is to block your guy. Job 1b of any offensive lineman is to find a way to help your squad-mate. If you come off the snap of the ball and you don’t have anyone to block, it means the line is getting beaten somewhere else. The ND offensive line comes off the snap and if there’s nobody to block right in front of them, they just stand there and look down field. It’s unbelievable. It’s a lack of hustle. It’s a lack of heart. It should be cause for benching.
Fix those 3 things, and even if you don’t address the probably dozen other issues, this team instantly gets better. Hell, against Penn State we probably even come close to winning the game.
Weis is going back to training camp mode this week. Watch for our newest indicators of progress to reflect that. This week, we can’t even say that the team got better, let alone made any real progress. Part of that, again, is the leadership thing. On shear talent alone, even if Ty Willingham had been calling the plays, this offensive squad should look more competitive, but these young guys have managed to retreat into their shells when things go wrong early. Fumbles against Georgia Tech, Punt Returns against PSU, overhead shotgun snaps against Michigan (sucks!). All Weis can really do is start from scratch, beat the living snot out of them, and drill them in fundamentals until some leadership emerges to give this group the competitive edge it needs to succeed.
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-15 - November 15, 2009
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-08 - November 8, 2009
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-01 - November 1, 2009
The Biscuit
i know we have a ton of offensive woes, and those should get the focus, but our D is struggling as well. we couldnt stop a run to save our life the other day, even though we knew what they were going to do on EVERY PLAY. run right behind Jake Long. all day. that shouldnt happen. that’s on the D-line, LBs and coach brown. these guys need to get inspired again. the whole team.
domer.mq
Oh, I agree that the defense was a mess in this game, but that’s actually something I expected to see before the season started. We have almost no DL right now. Our guys can play with all the heart in the world, but they’re undersized and understaffed.
Wertzy
Well, maybe we will have Hand back, which will give us some depth
Face Mask
Good job again domer.Back to training camp sounds good to me.Mike G. had a message for NDN.Be patient.Ok.I will.Nothing brings a team togeather like long hard practice.
ForeverFaust
Unless the defensive players start to condition like triathletes, there is no way they are going to perform better. How the hell are they supposed to stop anyone when they are constantly on the field? The first two games should have had way closer scores, but the defense was spent by the end of the game and could barely come out of their stance.
This defense is better than what the scores say. Give these guys time to make adjustments on the sideline and just a LITTLE break, your looking at a way better defense. Plus, how is it for your overall morale when your offense can not do anything more than a Pony League team?
StPatrick
Everything has to start with the offensive line. As long as they’re bad, it’s impossible to even judge the performance of the “skill” players. There’s a boatload of talent on the field…it’s time for them to become a team, and the rut-makers need to lead the way.